diaglo
Adventurer
DaveMage said:Absolutlely! And I would do just that if Dragon was no longer devoted to D&D/D&D-related d20.
plus it is more environmental friendly... less trees slain to bring us this news... Darn the Empire.
DaveMage said:Absolutlely! And I would do just that if Dragon was no longer devoted to D&D/D&D-related d20.
I'm curious, how does/has the medium of role-playing significantly expanded in the last 30 years, in general, other than the rules? I mean, I was playing a deep, immersive RP-heavy political game in 1987, and a very heavily story-driven game by 1984. I'm just curious how the medium could be changed, and what you mean. Most of the changes I think of in the RPG arena are all tied to rules.Faraer said:And catering to the rules-loving contingent of RPGers is a total dead end in terms of expanding the medium of roleplaying.
Faraer said:and a much larger potential (but theoretical) audience who would love the medium of roleplaying but be bored stiff by huge rulebooks and endless 'crunchy bits'.
It would certainly be a risk to break out of the current sensibility-niche, which Wizards has largely not attempted to market to.
To some extent the popularity of rules stuff is a self-fulfilling prophecy. When new players see what's published in Dragon their ideas of what roleplaying is about are bound to be shaped by it.
The 3E philosophy of feats and combat maneuvers micromanaging the story rather than leaving more to the DM and players
I suspect only a minority of RPGers have lucidly thought about these questions and whether what they're doing is achieving what they want.
Rules certainly do influence how campaigns are played, but so does the general culture, the type of people playing, how those rules are understood, the advice given in books and the attention paid to different topics, etc.
Tsyr said:Actually, regarding the "There are no RPG magazines, only D20 ones..."
I can think of at least three off thet top of my head: Pyramid (Online 'zine, granted), Knights of the Dinner Table (Not just a comic! Has an admitted Hackmaster bias, but it covers other stuff too, including a lot of small-press stuff), and Games Unplugged, which covers games from a number of publishers.
Pyramid: http://www.sjgames.com/pyramid/
Knights of the Dinner Table: http://www.kenzerco.com/periodicals/kodt/
Games Unplugged: http://www.gamesunplugged.com/
WizarDru said:I'm curious, how does/has the medium of role-playing significantly expanded in the last 30 years, in general, other than the rules? I mean, I was playing a deep, immersive RP-heavy political game in 1987, and a very heavily story-driven game by 1984. I'm just curious how the medium could be changed, and what you mean. Most of the changes I think of in the RPG arena are all tied to rules.
Faraer said:I don't see how 'mechanics assume nothing inherent to the setting', unless they're rules for something the rules handle already. Otherwise the mechanic translates to a power, monster, or whatever that has a game-world existence (what you're calling 'fluff').
I think whether an article is targeted at players or DMs is a far bigger factor in popularity than its mechanical content.
Obviously I'm not saying magazine contents wholly dictate people's thinking on RPGs, but there's no doubt that people's worldviews are influenced by media! Otherwise art, and propaganda, wouldn't work.
3E assigns detailed mechanics to some elements AD&D and many other RPGs leave to narration.
Also obviously, the people who discuss on messageboards are a tiny minority of roleplayers.
Since I'd like the RPG medium to expand -- modestly, I'm not talking mass market -- I'd like it to be marketed to a wider demographic and a wider range of sensibilities, and since only WotC/Hasbro has the money to do that, I'd like them to...